HTC Titan II vs. Lumia 900: how the specs compare

2012 is an important year for Microsoft. Some would even call it a do-or-die year. Though the company is in no danger of turning into RIM anytime soon, it hasn’t been dominating like it did for the two previous decades. It fell way behind Apple and Google in the mobile operating system space. Though Windows still holds a commanding market lead on desktops, the PC market as a whole is slipping, while Mac adoption continues to grow.

This will be the year that Microsoft not only introduces Windows 8, but it’s also the year that the company swings for the fence with Windows Phone. The elegantly-designed operating system has been favorably accepted by critics and the few customers who have bought into it, but it holds only a tiny sliver of the overall smartphone market (under six percent).

2012, however, heralds the arrival of the big guns. Microsoft’s flagship Nokia devices are making their US debut. Advertising will become a priority. Wireless clerks will even be paid bonuses to push the handsets to customers. This is the year that Microsoft will try to make up for (considerable) lost ground.

Two of the high-end devices that will be leading the way are the Titan II from HTC and the Lumia 900 from Nokia. Let’s see how these two hopes for Windows Phone stack up:

Dimensions

From a distance, it may be difficult to tell these two handsets apart. Both are rather large, and not the thinnest phones on the block either.

Living up to its name, the Titan II is slightly longer and thicker. Both phones have identical width.

Weight

Surprisingly, the slightly larger Titan II is actually a bit lighter than the Lumia 900. Our best guess to explain this is that the Lumia 900’s battery is a bit larger (more on that later).

Display

If you like super-sized displays, then the screen on the Titan II won’t disappoint. It measures at a whopping 4.7 inches diagonally.

Though the Titan’s display wins on size, it has the same number of pixels as the smaller 4.3 inch display on the Lumia 900. That means less pixels per inch for the Titan, which means less crispness in text and images.

The Lumia 900 also has an advantage with the ClearBlack tech in its AMOLED display. This is a perfect fit for Windows Phone 7, which leans heavily on blacks in its UI. They will look darker, and will serve to enhance the already-attractive Windows Phone 7 experience.

Processor

You won’t find any dual-core (much less quad-core) processors here. Windows Phone 7 is still stuck in the land of single-core chips. To the platform’s credit, though, the high-end offerings are clocked fairly high, and aren’t slouches in the speed department. This pair is no exception.

RAM

Neither handset has cutting edge specs in the RAM department either. They each have 512MB.

Storage

Here’s another identical category. While iOS offers different flash storage options (at different prices), and Android phones usually have SD card slots, these handsets offer neither. 16GB with no external storage is what you’re getting with both the Titan II and the Lumia 900.

Wireless data

Here’s another stalemate category. Both phones will ride on AT&T’s speedy LTE network. Keep in mind that it’s still rolling out, though, so not all areas will enjoy 4G speeds (yet).

Battery

As we mentioned earlier, the Lumia 900 has a slightly better battery. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it will have better battery life (we’ve yet to test either unit), but it shouldn’t hurt its chances.

Camera

Yes, you read that visual correctly. The Titan II has a 16MP(!) rear camera. Here we all just got used to having 8MP in high-end smartphones, and HTC doubles that.

Of course megapixels aren’t everything, and throwing 16 of them in doesn’t necessarily mean that your images will look any better than they will on an 8MP camera.

Intangibles

The Titan’s camera is worth accentuating again as the device’s biggest selling point. With a spec line that doesn’t have any other particularly noteworthy categories, those 16 megapixels help to separate it from the pack. HTC has added photography-related software to help sweeten the pot too.

Though Stephen Elop may not be a spec, his company may be the Lumia 900’s greatest intangible. Nokia is finally entering the US market, and the Lumia 900 is its first high-end Windows Phone. Nokia phones are to Windows Phone 7 what Nexus phones are to Android. They represent the embodiment of Microsoft’s vision for its mobile platform. Nokia’s slick hardware design goes hand-in-hand with the gorgeous UI. The companies have a high-quality and attractive product here; the only question is whether customers will notice.